I seem to be the first parent replying in this thread who is against that idea. Firstly, I have much more faith in Allah than in little GPS devices. Secondly, it is a very new technology and I wouldn't want my kid to go through that kind of unneccesary surgery. And thirdly: I'm living in one of the safest cities on earth, so the likelihood of an abduction is smaller than that of something going wrong with the device.
Even if everything works perfectly fine you will always have the issue of when is the right time to remove it. You say 18, your kid will say get rid of it as soon as he or she will be in their teens or maybe even earlier. Where do you draw the line here?
Personally, if I was ever actually paranoid enough to want to track my kids, I would never install something physically in them. Instead, there's a company that makes bracelet-like watch that locks in place (so it can't be easily removed) and which has a GPS located built into it....
Actually Mr Aahmed is against it also, he brought up some very good points about its use and potential for mis-use.
Its a wonderful thing to have such faith in Allah, who gave us the intelligence and ability to conceive of such devices! Head-in-the-sand, "It'll never happen to MY kids" type of thinking just wont do it for me and mine....not that I'd go ahead with it until its a more developed technology but for me, its definitely something I plan to keep an eye on.
As far as its removal, I think its been a little misunderstood here about how the thing works. It isnt like you can "spy" on your child or determine his whereabouts whenever you want. You get location information when the child is MISSING. So its removal becomes less important as a "privacy" issue I'd think...I mean most cell phones now have GPS locators which parents are using all the time...they give their kids cell phones and the parents can track their whereabouts whenever they want. This I think is more invasive on privacy than a chip implant whose use is only and specifically for finding a missing person!
I said that I'm the first parent in this thread to write against it. Mr. Aahmed is not a parent yet. :)
Its a wonderful thing to have such faith in Allah, who gave us the intelligence and ability to conceive of such devices! Head-in-the-sand, "It'll never happen to MY kids" type of thinking just wont do it for me and mine....
Now here I think you've misunderstood me. I'm definitely not one of those head-in-the-sand types. Really far from it! But I'm not paranoid either and I'm against these sort of devices, BECAUSE I love my kid. Maybe if I'd live in the US or in Pakistan, I would think about it like you, because there child abductions really seem to be something relatively common.
not that I'd go ahead with it until its a more developed technology but for me, its definitely something I plan to keep an eye on.
That makes sense.
As far as its removal, I think its been a little misunderstood here about how the thing works. It isnt like you can "spy" on your child or determine his whereabouts whenever you want. You get location information when the child is MISSING. So its removal becomes less important as a "privacy" issue I'd think...I mean most cell phones now have GPS locators which parents are using all the time...they give their kids cell phones and the parents can track their whereabouts whenever they want. This I think is more invasive on privacy than a chip implant whose use is only and specifically for finding a missing person!
Who guarantees that the chip will never be used for other purposes? To me this really is, running towards a "1984" scenario.
"Who guarantees that the chip will never be used for other purposes? To me this really is, running towards a "1984" scenario."
I do agree with that...but no one is complaining about cell phones with GPS locators and these are in widespread use today....I wonder why this is acceptable? Parents can even watch their children proceed thru their day on a map! And yet, there isnt (or doesnt seem to be) privacy concerns about this.